Women entrepreneurs still trail their male counterparts

March 08, 2013 18:09 IST

Even as Asia, including India, has a higher proportion of entrepreneurs compared to the rest of the world, the number of women business owners is much below the global average, according to a recent report.

"The number of female business owners in Asia is still trailing levels seen amongst their male counterparts and below the global average," says a new research report from Barclays Wealth and Investment Management.

This, it says, is despite Asia having a higher proportion of entrepreneurs (47 per cent) compared to the US (29 per cent) and Europe (30 per cent).

This new report finds that 39 per cent of high net worth women in Asia classify themselves as business owners, which is far below the 50 per cent of high net worth men in Asia.

Globally, 44 per cent of HNW women and 49 per cent of HNW men classify themselves as business owners.

It also shows that the gender pay gap is wider for non-entrepreneurs compared to entrepreneurs.

Non-entrepreneur women earn significantly more than non-entrepreneur men, while male entrepreneurs make slightly more than their female counterparts, it shows.

However, this trend is reverse globally, where among the high net worth female entrepreneurs earn 14 per cent more than their male counterparts.

In contrast, the average income of a high net worth woman who does not own her own business is 21

per cent lower than the corresponding average male income, it adds.

For the research, more than 2,000 high net worth individuals were interviewed and in Asia 500 respondents were surveyed, of which over 200 respondents were entrepreneurs.

The report further says, a higher proportion of entrepreneurs in Asia value the role of failure in contributing to future success more than their global counterparts.

Only 60 per cent of male entrepreneurs and 51 per cent of female entrepreneurs agree that past failure in entrepreneurial endeavours increases their chances of success in a new business, it points out.

However, the Barclays research shows that globally female business owners tend to value past failures less than their male counterparts.

While 70 per cent of male business owners agree that past failure in entrepreneurial endeavours increases the chances that a new business will succeed, this figure falls to 65 per cent for female business owners.

"Today women are at a threshold where they are moving from being a back door decision maker to board room decision maker.

"The present generation is supportive of women actively being engaged in family business, starting their own entrepreneurial ventures and acquiring professional education," Barclays, Wealth and Investment Management Chief Executive (India) Satya Bansal said.